How to build a direct booking business with less than 5 properties

All right, I've been asked a question and this question has come from the amazing Nettie, Annette and Sarah from thanks for giving podcasts as well as other amazing things. I'm so looking forward to meeting up with them very soon in Nashville at the Short Term Rental wealth event. And the question was this, Mark, I totally understand about book direct, I totally understand about direct bookings. I totally understand all these things. But there are people in our community, in our world, but want to do it proper, scrappy do style. They want to do it. No pms, no property management software. They just want something that, where they can have a basic website. They want to have something that is there, that can build the trust, build the brand, show that you're a proper business, but not have to do all the tech. And they asked if I could put something together and I, and I jumped at the chance because the first ever, ever person that I helped when it comes to short term rental and all of that jazz was somebody close to me, which was my parents. They had nothing in place in terms of an online booking site, in terms of a website, a proper website. They didn't have any online travel agents, they didn't have anything. We had to start from the ground up. Proper scrappy style. And the first ever client that I ever put a website for, they didn't have a property management software, dynamic pricing, they didn't have all of the things. So I wanted to record this video to show how to do it, scrappy style to show how to do it. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to show you what you can do and how to do it. Now I want to give a little bit of context to this. This tactic is going to be ideal for anybody with one to five properties. Now, I don't care if you're doing buy to let, short term let, or if you're doing the arbitrage model or management company, co hosting, whatever you want to call it, one to five, this is ideal for you. If you've got more than five as in six plus, please, just for your sanity, am I ocd? That's the next level. This is a different video. So if you're at six plus properties and if you're still, you know, doing it all on Airbnb or doing it with pen and paper, for me, for my sanity, for my ocd and for your sanity, make sure that you take the next step up. You do need a property management software. You need to start building that proper business. And that's a total of a conversation that's a total of a video. If you want to just come to Boostly and chat to us directly, go to boostly website.com b o s t l y website.com booking a call and we'll go from there and show you. But this is, this is the scrappy video but I wanted to talk about 1 to 5. So there's going to be a lot of people watching this because 86% of the whole market is anybody from 1 to 10, 86% of the whole market. So there's a lot of people who need to see this video. So thank you very much for Sarah and Nettie for prompting me to do this. And like I said, this is a video for you. So let's have a little look at the core basics and I'm going to share my screen and as you can see here, I'm in the bottom right hand corner and we've got the website in the background. Now the first thing that what you need to do, even if you don't want a property management software, even if you don't want all of the things, you still need to have a website that a future potential guest can go to that is going to trust you. Now you could send them to a Facebook page, you could send them to your Instagram, you could send them to wherever you want them to go. But unless you've got a website that clearly shows that you are a proper business, then you are never going to build that trust. When it comes to handing money over, especially with something so important as a vacation, you need to have that trust factor. This is not buying something on ebay, this is not buying something on Amazon. This is a vacation where people make memories. Okay? So you've got to make sure that you build that trust and that loyalty. And like I said, I don't care if it's 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 properties, you need to be doing this as soon as possible. Now what you've got in front of you is a, is a boostly DIY website or a done with you website as I like to call it. One of the biggest pain points for anybody in one to five is that they don't know what to do. So they hear they need a website, they go and look at WordPress but then they see how confusing it is so they leave. They get overwhelmed and leave and then they go to Wex, Wix or Squarespace or even worse like a, like a Google free website and they are crap, they are shocking. They don't work. So what we did and what I Did is we created something that is built 80% for you and all you need to do is personalize it. But this is the exact layout that you need need for your website. So let me just quickly base break it down and show you what you need to do. So the first thing at the top here, you need to state who you are, you need to state who you serve, you need to state how they can make a reservation or an inquiry with you. So what we've got is a very raw example. It's obviously a nice picture in the background, little bit of text, text and then how they can make a reservation or book or et cetera. Okay. So that's the first thing that they see. And if I minimize the screen, you'll see that it will pivot and go slightly different for mobile. Okay. So you're gonna make sure you always check it on mobile. If you want to do that, go onto a laptop, grab the bottom corner and drag it. So make you got to make sure that it looks good on mobile as well as on a desktop or a laptop. Okay, Next things next, what you then need to do is you need to introduce yourself. You then need to show off your properties. If you've got more than three, what I recommend you do is you just put your three best ones. So these are the ones that are like your favorite ones, you know, and I know it's hard to pick a favorite. It's like asking which one's your favorite child. But you know, it's the ones that either got the best reviews or you know, the showcase sites. Then what you need to do is you need to talk about your property highlights. So then why do people book with you? Is it luxury? Is it large properties, small properties? You know, what do you do? Do you have pets? You know, do you allow families? Whatever it is, you're going to do it here. And then anything that you offer, you could do airport pickups, you could do fishing trips, you could do days out, excursions, yogi or whatever it is, whatever you offer, you pop it in there. You could do, you know, extended cleans. It could be whatever it is, whatever your sort of usp, you pop it in there. If you have an email list, fantastic. If not, you don't need it and then have your reviews. Now the cool thing about what we do is if you're looking at that and you're going, wow, that's really confusing. Well, we've already created this for you. So Again, this is US$500, 399 pounds. If you want this message me directly. Marketbooster.co.uk. i'll show you how you can get it. It's all been created for you. All you need to do is switch out the pictures and swap out the text. That's literally it. And personalize your listings. It's super simple. And we've got a support team and a Facebook group that will help you do it as well. Now, for some of you that have got management companies, we've also got a management page as part of this site as well. So if you're looking to establish trust, established a brand, something that you can put in front of a landlord or a real estate company or whoever to sort of showcase who you are, then we've got a management page as well on here that will, again, you just swap out the images, swap out the text, personalize it and off you go. These are really effective and that these are really key for when, number one, save it. You chatting to somebody in a supermarket, you find out that they are, you know, staying contractors, business people, you can send them that website and be confident that it's going to showcase who you are and what you do in the trust and how to establish that, that trust so that somebody can then contact you. Now, the big point here is, okay, well, that's well and good, I've got here, but how do I actually take a booking? Now, obviously, if you're not going to have a property management software, what you need to do here is you need to be able to give them the easiest way for them to be able to inquire with you. So what you'll notice on the website if I share my screen again, is that we've got the live chat in the, in the bottom corner here. So with live chat, what it basically means is that when a guest is on the site, I'm going to highlight it just here. When a guest is on the site, they can then click on that button and it will send you a text message, a WhatsApp message, or they can even send you an email directly because what they're going to do is they're going to send that message, okay, and they're going to come to your inbox, text message or whatever that may be, because you're not going to have the pms, the instant booking is off. But for a lot of people who don't want a pms, who don't want instant book, then this is a great way to be able to chat to the guest before they make the reservation. Now, as far as the calendar goes, the cool thing is, is that I assume all of you right now have got an Airbnb listing. Well, what we'll be able to do is we'll be able to link in your, your website to the Airbnb account and your listing via a little technology called iCal. So the calendar will be linked up, so they'll be able to see what the availability is like, but they won't be able to make a booking direct. What they'll be able to do is they'll be able to message you directly, so they won't be able to instant book, so they'll be able to message you directly and then you're still in control. Now, in case of taking payment, in case of the next steps, there's many options. You could set up a Stripe account, you could set up a PayPal account. Both of these just take five minutes to do. They again, super simple. It's our most recommended sort of payment platform is Stripe, or you could do PayPal, or if you wanted to, you could do it old school and send out an invoice. Now, the one thing that I've always mentioned and one thing that, um, something that has been sort of hammered home to me over the years is that money loves speed, but it hates friction. So what you need to do for your future potential guest is to be able to give them an option which is super simple to pay for you. So say they send you an email, they go, hey, Mark, I'd love to stay with you. I see you've got dates available at X property. Yep. Fantastic. Here's how to make the payment. You can send them a link. Super simple. Invoices are all well and good, but invoices do slow down the process. So by sending out the link again, it's super easy for to do. And everybody knows now about Stripe and PayPal etc, now when it comes to you and it comes to sort of guest protect, so house protection, host protection, obviously everybody has heard of air cover. Now, Super Hog is the best off Airbnb platform for the, for the insurance and for the guest protection. So you've got Super Hog and you've got Guard Hog, they're both part of the same company. But this just means that it protects your listings, it protects your homes. So once the, the, the sort of, the reservation has been made or the inquiry has come in, you can then ask the guest just to fill out this details and it protects your listings. Out of everything that is out there, this is the most simplest to use and it's the one that will give you the most protection. So super hog.com definitely want to check out guardhug godhog.com now a thing that I've also talked about a lot is, is giving you that accreditation because one of the main reasons why guests book with Airbnb or booking.com or VRBO is because they feel safe, because they know it's a recognized brand. So how are you Mr. Startup, Mrs. Startup, 1 to 3, 1 to 5 listings going to have that accreditation? Well, this is where IPRAC comes in. I hyphenprac.com you can go there and you can speak to them booking a demo because what they're able to do is they're able to give you a certification certificate that you can put on your website. And it's unique to you. This has been one of the, one of the game changers in the industry. They've got over 200,000 properties listings, part of their system and it definitely provides that trust factor to a host. So alongside Super Hogg, Guard Hog, then you, you're having that trust factor and it's giving you that, that confidence as well. So having a boostly website with Super Hog, Guard Hog, IPRAC is definitely a nice little trifecta, nice little triangle. One thing that I also like to mention as well is that if you want to turn a guest into a super fan, if you want them to have the best guest experience, one thing that I wish everybody was doing and I assume that a lot of you are doing it already, but I know there's some of you who aren't, go ahead and go and get yourself a, a digital guidebook. You've got host fully and you've also got Touch Day. Those are the two market leaders. Both as good as each other. I love them both the same. And again with hostfully guidebooks or Touch Day guidebooks, what it does is it gives your guests that personalized customized itinerary before they even arrive. And with it as well, you've got a chance to boost the guest experience. You've got the opportunity to like say communicate with your host so your guest. And at the back of it, you're going to get those five star reviews, which means you're going to be able to get more bookings, more direct bookings, more people coming to your website, more referrals. And who knows, if you're looking to grow and expand out of the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 sort of properties into six. This is the foundation. How to do it scrappy. So let's just recap very quickly to have A direct booking brand, a direct booking business, but where you don't have to have, you don't want to have that PMS technology, you don't want to have that property management software technology. Here's a recap on what you need to do. Number one, have a WordPress website. If you don't want to set it all the things up for boost eight for literally 500399 pounds, we've created it all for you. All you need to do is personalize the copy and change the images around. If you struggle with that, then we've got a support team that will help you behind the scenes. And if you even struggle with that even further, there's two people that we outsource to but you can pay them directly and it's a very low hourly cost and they will put it together with you. So again we keep it simple for that then what you need to do is you need to make sure that you have that trust factor not only for the guest, but you can trust the guest that's coming through your door. Super hog Guard Hog Iprech and then finally to turn your guests into super fans. Raven guests. Super raven guests, whatever you want to call it, superfans ones are going to become like tell everybody about you. Having a digital guidebook goes a long way down the line because you're able to create that custom itinerary for them so you're able to tell them everything that they need to do. You may eliminate all the potential questions that you're going to get. And again it just keeps you, you, you present and able to communicate with your guests as well. Finally, one final, final one. A piece of technology that is helping everybody create copy. So this helps you for your listings, this helps you for your marketing, this helps you for your website is is listify.AI l I s T I F Y Brand new service specializing for the hospitality and short term rental industry. It is helping you create copy which is fantastic. It will help you on your listing site, it'll help you on your website and it'll help you with social media as as well go to Listify AI you can book in a free trial. I've been using it for Boostly and I'm using it with the Boostly members and it is working really well. So if you get on this now, you're ahead of the curve on this one. So I've given you plenty there. All I want for you to do is if you're struggling between one and five properties, you're struggling to come Away from Airbnb, you're struggling. You want to go multi. You know, you want to do all of the things, but you want to build a direct booking business but you're struggling to escape, but you don't want to do the property management software just yet. I've just laid out the foundation for everybody on what you need to do. If you want to find out more from me, just send me an email. Markoosa.co.uk Again, thank you so much to Sarah and Nettie for the prompt to do this and I really hope this helps. If you've got any questions on anything that I've shown you in this 1617 minute video, please feel free to reach out. Mark m a r kly co.uk as always, my name is Mark Simpson. I give hosts all over the world the tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence to go and increase your diary bookings. Doesn't matter whether you've got one unit or you've got over 100 properties. If you want to find out more about me, go to booster.co.uk you can always go and grab a copy of this, which is the book Direct Playbook. I've got over 100 more tips in here on how to increase your direct bookings. As always, stay proactive, don't be reactive and let's go and get some more direct bookings. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for checking out today's podcast episode. Now, before you head and go anywhere else, before you click to the next episode be before you do that, do me one big favor and go check out boostly.co.uk trust IPRAC are the sponsors of all of the Boostly content and the reason why I work with them and the reason why we spread the message of IPRAC is that when a host or a company is looking to get more into direct bookings, the main question they have is around trust. As in will a guest trust that I am a true and real business? Will IPRAC take care of all of that? And they've got a special offer that is only available to Boostly people. But to do that you need to go to Boostly which is b o o s tly.co.uk trust you can find out all the information there. You can book in a demo, book in a call and then you will get your super special offer that is only available to Boostly peoples. Thank you again for tuning in. Do go check out Iprac. We'll be back again very shortly with another podcast episode, but until then we'll see you all very soon. Take care.